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XConnect Certifies NetNumber TITAN

In a few hours, XConnect (News - Alert) will announce that the NetNumber TITAN (Transactional IP Telephony Addressing and Numbering) server has been certified XConnect-Ready.

According to XConnect CEO and Founder Eli Katz (News - Alert), the certification is important because it will “…enable service providers utilizing TITAN to efficiently access XConnect Registry information and interconnect to XConnect Federations by enabling cascading queries from TITAN to the XConnect Registry.”

The calls between the service provider’s network and XConnect federation members will be routed over IP, bypassing the PSTN, preserving call quality and reducing termination costs. Furthermore, advanced services can be carried end to end, across the federated networks.

According to the official announcement, which hits the wires Wednesday, “the NetNumber (News - Alert) TITAN, a converged ENUM, SIP, SS7/C7 and SIGTRAN addressing and routing engine, received the XConnect Ready designation after completing interoperability testing based on SIP signalling and ENUM queries with XConnect federations.”

The XConnect Ready Partners Program is designed to create an ecosystem of pre-tested vendors and solutions to facilitate peering.

I was fortunate enough to catch Katz before the eagerly anticipated Liverpool v Real Madrid UEFA Champions League match. That match is taking place as I write this. He was kind enough to respond to my questions via e-mail before heading off to root for his Reds.

GG: Describe the XConnect Ready Partners Program. How is the partner acquisition/sign up going?

EK: We currently have seven announced members, including Acme Packet, Digitalk, VoIP Logic, VocalTec (News - Alert), Genband, Dialogic and OpenSIPS and more to be announced in the coming months.

To repeat the goal and process of the program, the XConnect Ready Partners program is designed to create an ecosystem of pre-tested vendors and solutions to facilitate peering.

The certification process involves testing based on SIP and ENUM querying with the XConnect Registry to ensure calls can be routed correctly. This enables vendors to offer their service provider clients an “off the shelf” or “out of the box” solution for integration with the XConnect suite of peering, interconnection and registry services.

The benefit of the pre-certification is that it enables quicker, simpler and more cost effective peering solutions for Service Providers.

GG: Is the deal with NetNumber exclusive? Are there any other similar partnerships in the works?

EK: No. We will announce further XC Ready partners in the future, as our goal is to have an array of vendors certified as XC Ready to enable simpler interconnection and peering between many service providers.

GG: What are some of the challenges faced by the VoIP Peering (News - Alert) community, and how are they being addressed, with the end goal being to rival the PSTN in terms of reach?

EK: One approach to the challenge of sending calls over IP from end to end is for service providers to peer with one another. Bi-lateral peering, however, is not a scalable model and presents management and interoperability issues.

We believe that Federation VoIP/NGN (multi-lateral) peering via a trusted third-party federation hub — such as that offered by XConnect — enables service providers to overcome these obstacles. This solution allows service providers to deliver more calls or multimedia sessions IP-to-IP, increases their reach and enhances the quality of their service offering to their subscribers at a reduced cost.

XConnect — and our Ready Partners program in particular — also solves the problem caused by vendors implementing ENUM routing technology using different standards or variations, at different stages of development. By making sure that their routing and registry servers have achieved XC Ready certification, we can ensure optimum interoperability and readiness to participate in XConnect multilateral peering federations.

GG: If you had to make one bold prediction for 2009, what would it be? (UEFA Cup predictions acceptable provided you make 1 VoIP Peering prediction too.)

EK: Currently there are few countries that have over 20% VoIP penetration. For example, in Europe only France (48%), Netherlands (37%) and Norway (22%) exceed that threshold. For 2009, I predict that there will be a 100% increase in the number of countries achieving over 20% VoIP penetration. Furthermore, I think we will witness at least 10 Tier 1 operators introducing high-definition voice and video services. This mass market adoption and introduction of IP services point to a federation architecture for VoIP peering.

UEFA Champions League winners – Liverpool and I wish them well against Real Madrid tonight!

Editor’s Note: As I publish this article, Liverpool and Real Madrid are playing in the 89th minute, with Liverpool leading 4-nil. It's a rout. There will be celebrating at Anfield tonight!

Greg Galitzine is editorial director for TMC’s IP Communications suite of products, including TMCnet.com. To read more of Greg’s articles, please visit his columnist page. He also blogs for TMCnet here.